“In the spirit of conciliation, I
want to offer reassurance to those who reacted to the Supreme Court’s
same-sex marriage decision with a mix of outrage and horror: It will
have no effect on how you live your lives,” Frank wrote.

“This is not a prediction of what
will happen in the future. It is a distillation of the nearly 12
years of experience in Massachusetts since our Supreme Judicial Court
issued the forerunner of this ruling in 2003. No member of the
clergy has had to participate in any marriage she or he found sinful,
immoral or even offensive. No house of worship has been forced to
open any of its premises – sanctuaries, function halls or, as much
as I can ascertain, even parking lots – for ceremonies that
contravene their religious tenets.”

“But we should not rely on history
alone,” he
added later. “These scare tactics were always implausible, and
their repetition – for example, by as responsible a figure as Chief
Justice John Roberts in his dissent – calls for an analytical
deconstruction as well.”

“Given his implicit recognition that
the rules of marriage have changed drastically from society to
society and from era to era, what is the basis for thinking that this
change will unsettle the institution?”

Frank concluded with “a very
confident prediction.”

“Within a very few years, if that
long, the people now obsessing over the damage they expect from the
Supreme Court's decision will be in severe danger of getting over
it.”